Identity Theft - Lakes Region

[John Mercier]

Originally Posted by TheProfessor

Neighbor who was an exectutive that worked for the telephone company stated that these calls could easily be stopped.
BUT
The lobbyists in Washington - work on BOTH sides of the spectrum.
The phone companies make money the more calls that are made.
My phone machine states the incoming callers telephone number. And some are 603.
These numbers are purchased then sold to the Asian/Pacific telemarketers.
The lobbyists know this but lobby US Congress to leave all alone.

All could be stopped. But those on BOTH sides of the aisle - take the lobby money to help them get elected or re-elected.

Is my phone company neighbor right or wrong on this?

It's possible. But I think more of it has to do with the lack of their understanding about what is going on behind the scenes.

I compare this to two customers I had when I first started in doors and windows. A gentleman came in on the weekend seeking a kitchen cabinet knob. We short staff kitchen designers on the weekend, unless an appointment has been made. He went to the designer not seeing a customer sitting in the chair and started to present his desire to purchase the knob. He didn't realize the designer was working on someone else's kitchen in the computer system and simply couldn't just ''break away'' without risking problems for the customer whose kitchen was being worked on. He didn't understand the behind the scenes.

I was able to order him the knob, because I wasn't busy. But, I made it clear, I am not a kitchen associate at best I could guess based on the sample he had. And once ordered, it could not be returned. We ordered, and I believe that it worked out.

Back then, I worked doors, windows, roofing, siding, and decking... I had that much time and not a lot of sales, so I was able to learn all those options well enough to be confident that I was laying out the options, pricing, and other particulars with the detail needed for the customer to make an informed decision. I attended hours of training and site visits on each category.

The kitchen designer had done so, but with kitchens and baths... lots of hardware and options with those.

I just got lucky with his order.

But the behind the scenes is the thing that takes so much time to absorb, and I presume that most congressional members cannot absorb enough information on every issue before them due to complexity and workload. At best they hope the staff can ''wing it''.

[TheProfessor]

One of my neighbors.
Nice well educated well traveled senior lady.
Was working in yard. August.
She came up to me with an email printout.

She had won a lottery. $100,000.
She stated that all she had to do was to send $100.00 for "processing".

She asked me what I thought.

I wanted to laugh at her but kept a straight polite face.

The one hundred dollars was to be sent to Nigeria. The country of Nigeria.

She was about to send the $100.00.

I advised her politely not to send any money to Nigeria and that it might possibly be a scam.

[Slickcraft]

This recently from Bank of New Hampshire:

Customer Service
1/13/2023 - 1:17 PM
We have received reports of a fraudulent text message that instructs recipients to click on a link to unlink their debit card from a Point of Sales (POS) system. Although the verbiage and phone number might vary, these text messages should be deleted and reported. This is a scam and is not associated in any way with Bank of New Hampshire. If you received one of these messages and clicked on the link, please contact Bank of New Hampshire immediately at 1.800.832.0912.

To keep accounts and personal information safe, remember these simple tips:

1. BNH fraud alert text messages will always come from the short code 37-268.

2. Always keep an eye out for spelling mistakes such as “bank.nh.com.”

3. Never click any links or call phone numbers listed in unsolicited text messages.

4. Only call phone numbers listed on a trusted source, such as BankNH.com. When in doubt, call the phone number on the back of your debit card.

Alan

[LakeTimes]

Advice - Unless you know the number that is calling, NEVER pick it up. There is something more sophisticated hackers are doing called "Voice Hacking."

Short of the long - Many of those calls you get where you say hello and no one is there end up being hackers recording your speech. Now, it's becoming more frequent where they call to solicit you into having a conversation with them getting you say as many words as possible while they record your voice (often use excuses around donations, political support or feedback, etc.). Most people just politely decline and think nothing of it, where they actually are just trying to record your voice. Once they have enough data, their goal is to then use software & algorithms and digitally create a soundboard of your voice which they can then use to impersonate you and call your bank or other companies...

Think of the damage one could cause if they could mimic your exact voice... Sure there are checks and balances that good companies put in place to minimize this from happening, but plenty don't as they can't afford it... There are still several large institutions that are trying to offer 'convenience' to their customers with voice recognition software where you just call and don't need to talk to someone, you can do it all through their automated system.

Intent isn't to scare anyone, just to educate as to some of the latest methods of hacking that's around us. The world is and will continue to change quickly and we need to educate and evolve with it as well before we find ourselves being caught victim. Would hate to see anyone fall victim to it on here.